The handsome Macleay River Hotel has come up for sale in the NSW mid-north coast town of Frederickton.
Known locally as the ‘Fredo Pub’, the hotel resides on 3,064sqm on the banks of the eponymous Macleay River and on the main thoroughfare through town. It offers a public bar, commercial kitchen and bistro, function space, gaming room, bottleshop and ample on and off-street parking.
Vendors for the sale are a locate syndicate offered the chance to purchase it in 2021 as a passive investment, who have elected to divest so as to deploy the capital into more core assets.
It is leased at $5k rental per week, but agents advise there is the potential to facilitate vacant possession.
The pub currently reports weekly revenue of circa $33k, with immediate upside. The structure is in need of some capex and would greatly benefit from an owner-operator. There is further scope in the gaming operation, with eight entitlements on old machines and no smoking solution, TITO or CRT.
Frederickton is around 60 kilometres north of Port Macquarie and the Fredo enjoys no competition amongst the roughly 2k residents. The town is part of the Kempsey LGA, counting population of circa 35k people and around one pub per 5k residents.
Macleay River Hotel is likely to fetch a sale price north of $5 million.
“The asset presents a clear upside play for an experienced operator, holding many desirable attributes sought by the most successful publicans, including a large river-front land holding, main street location and multiple revenue drivers,” says HTL Property’s Xavier Plunkett, marketing the property with colleague Blake Edwards.
Agents expect interest from both metro and local hoteliers and private investors, given the favourable economic and demographic drivers in the region.
This has been seen in a plethora of recent sales in the northern rivers region, such as Nick Quinn buying the Manning River Hotel, the Taphouse Group divesting its landmark Port Macquarie pub to an established hotelier, the Laundy Flower partnership acquiring both the Mercure Hotel in Port Macquarie and the Tacking Point Hotel, and most recently the Roche family selling Harrigan’s Tavern to Glenn Knight.
“Mid-north coast assets of any description are always hotly contested,” adds Edwards.
The freehold of the Macleay River Hotel is being offered by Expressions of Interest, closing Thursday, 20 July.
